Mourners from near and far contribute to Kerrville memorial for flood victims

KERRVILLE — Marissa Martinez spent Saturday evening holding back tears at a downtown Kerrville memorial for Fourth of July flood victims.

The Houston resident, 37, left a green sticky note on a picture of Molly DeWitt, a 9-year-old who died when Camp Mystic was overtaken by surging Guadalupe River floodwaters last week.

"Prayers for everyone. Texas strong," the note said.

The memorial — a collection of flowers, photos and personal notes like Martinez’s — has become a focal point for the community since deadly flash flooding devastated Kerr County on Independence Day. More than 100 people have been confirmed dead and Gov. Greg Abbott said last week that as many as 161 were still unaccounted for.

READ MORE: Camp Mystic was in the nation’s ‘most dangerous river valley.’ Parents say they never knew.

Martinez said she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about DeWitt since learning after the tragedy that they’d attended the same Houston church.

"It’s heartbreaking," she said, looking toward the flowers and photos attached to the stretch of chain-link fence that separates Water Street from the river. "I’m trying hard not to cry, just trying to keep it together."

The memorial has attracted visitors from near and far. It was the site of a Friday night vigil that drew about 300 mourners.

Leo Soto, 30, flew into Texas from his Miami home at mid-week to begin setting up the memorial. He has organized similar displays across the country after creating his first in memory of a high school classmate who died in the 2021 Surfside, Fla., condominium collapse that killed nearly 100 people.

"It’s really powerful," Soto said of seeing visitors contributing to the Kerrville memorial. "It’s overwhelming seeing so many people show up and wanting to be here to pay their respects."

He laminated photos of dozens of the victims and brought in live flowers himself but the wall continues to grow as community members and families add their own signs, notes and balloons. Soto is asking that visitors add artificial flowers in the coming days so that when the real ones die, the wall will remain colorful.

San Antonian Tiffany Cuellar, 43, and her husband quietly looked at the wall with their two school-age sons as the sun set Saturday.

"Mother Nature is beautiful but it can also be destructive," she said. "We are just trying to show our boys the reality of what can happen and how life is just so precious."

Heather Barrera, 37, and her husband drove a U-Haul truck down from Houston packed with water bottles and supplies for flood victims. She handed them off to a wine bar in downtown Kerrville that has been collecting and distributing donations. The couple stopped by the memorial before getting back on the road to head home.

As a mother of two, Barrera said news of the flood hit hard.

"Hearing about all these poor kids and families that were lost when they were just out on a weekend having fun is just absolutely devastating and heartbreaking," Barrera said. "We just wanted to come and pay our respects."